The last couple of weeks are certain to be wild chapters in future history books and feature any number of scorching memoirs written by insiders in future years, as far as political life in these United States goes. Drama, treachery, double-dealing, lies upon lies, assassination and plots within plots – a spectacle that we can only watch from the outside in horrified fascination, while attempting to unpick the various threads and figure out what in the name of the wide, wide world of blood sports is going on. That something tremendous is happening, and we can sense that once-solid verities are shifting and reforming under the surface. We conservativish long-time observers of the scene can sense a fresh breeze beginning to rise, the dawn of something bright shining over the horizon, the first rumblings of a preference cascade. In the words of the Bishop of Wakefield’s inspiring hymn
And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,
steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
and hearts are brave again, and arms are strong!
Our hearts are renewed and encouraged, at the very least – all is not lost. Some national corporations appear to be concluding that a focus on management by Diversity-Inclusion-Equity at all costs is a way to go bust in a big way. The LQBTQWERTY-Celebration month last month seemed to have gone low-key as far as rainbow merchandise went. In pop culture matters, Disney stock prices have dropped, just as family attendance at their parks (although that may just be a matter of rational economics) and the Star Wars universe series Lesbian Witches in Space seemed to be watched only by video critics lining up to slam it. Sales of electric vehicles appear to be tanking – the market for such expensive toys might very well be tapped out, at least for now. This and dozens of other indications suggest that a brink of toleration, or grim endurance has been reached.
People will push back, once they have been harassed beyond enduring; several different blogs and Substack commenters hosted discussions about striking back; the whys and hows, even if striking back in kind and degree was even ethically appropriate. (The general consensus of this one was to serve the same sauce with a goose as with a gander, and only escalate to a degree sufficient to make your point clear.)
Others, like this writer – are harsher, and for good reasons.
So – is there a new wind blowing? What do you think has changed in the last couple of weeks. What have you observed, on-line or real life? Last week, my daughter noted a massive pro-Trump car parade across the northside, here in San Antonio. Comment as you wish.
‘New wind blowing’…an interesting comment the other day from venture capitalist Paul Graham (founder of Y Combinator)
“Remember in 2016 when a huge mob tried to pressure Y Combinator into firing Peter Thiel as a part-time partner because he supported Trump rather than Clinton? Seems unimaginable now, and yet at the time we felt very much in the minority in refusing.
Stories like this show how far to the left the pendulum had swung in 2016. Now if you were asked to fire someone because they supported the Republican rather than the Democratic candidate, you’d simply refuse. But back then there were news stories about it.”
(He also said “incidentally, I didn’t support Trump then and I don’t now. But it was obviously a terrible idea to start firing people because they supported the wrong presidential candidate.)
In the last few weeks [and indeed the last few years] it has been becoming increasingly clear that the old mores implicit in our Social Contract are almost gone. The Executive Branch ignores the law and Constitution at will, publicly. The Legislative Branch not only ignores it, but also ignores direct defiance by the Executive. Much of the Judicial Branch’s efforts are devoted to either avoiding needed decisions or acting for political ends.
One of the key definitions of national sovereignty is defined borders controlled by the nation’s government. Look around.
With the mayhem in DC to be honest I have my doubts whether there will be a real election in November, whether the vote count will have any integrity, if it does will it be reported honestly and believed, and whether there will be any others afterwards.
Times are getting Interesting and they remind me of either the year AD 68 in Europe, or the end of any number of dynasties in my ancestral home. This, by the way, is not a good thing; especially if you have children and grandchildren.
Subotai Bahadur
The temperature is rising, for sure. President Kennedy got assassinated, but no-one expected the US to fall apart. President Reagan got shot (“Honey, I forgot to duck”), but no-one predicted that would be the end of the US. President Trump got injured by a failed assassin — and we are all holding our breath.
However, what happens in the Swamp is increasingly irrelevant. The real problems are social & financial — a dysfunctional educational system, a legal system with neither justice nor competence, a voting system no-one trusts, an open border, a belligerent foreign policy, a giant growing unrepayable National Debt, catastrophic FedGov budget deficits, an unsustainable trade deficit … all dependent upon a hollowed-out de-industrialized economy. Whatever happens on the promenade deck of this Titanic, the ship is still going down.
Here’s what I’m seeing in swing state Wisconsin.
There are Trump Harris signs. Lookin’ a bit out of date.
I’ve seen several 2020 Trump signs that have been kept and repurposed. Duct tape over 2020 and Pence! And my favorite I just saw today. Convicted Felon for President!
I think there’s an enthusiasm gap, at least in rural Badgerland.
Ooops, obviously meant Biden Harris signs. Guess he’s starting to be forgotten!
The tech industry and Trump, at City Journal:
https://www.city-journal.org/article/tech-for-trump
May need to register to read.
One thing I noticed that some libs/progs/idiots got fired for tweeting/Xing that they regretted the gunshot didn’t actually kill Trump. One of those being fired was an aide to a Congressman. Some have stated that this is an example of Republicans being just as bad as the other side in Cancel Culturing someone.
However, there is a difference between a government employee regretting that an ex-President and Presidential candidate hadn’t been killed, and someone who doesn’t agree with the multitudinous pronoun use that the LGQBMTBLT crowd wants to impose on everyone.
I looked at some of the T-shirts that had the picture of Trump pumping his fist after he got shot. I then realized that if I were to wear it, I would probably get harassed for wearing it. One impulse was to wear steel-toed shoes or boots when wearing the Trump t-shirt, and kick a harasser in the shins. But that might result in arrest, so better to not wear a Trump t-shirt.
I don’t want to believe that the good omens portend a dark future, but…the real Reactionaries are on the left and the chasm that lies between is widening.
Trump surviving the way he did means divine providence to me and that can’t be anything but a good sign.
Appropriate retribution would be to find out who did all the lying to FISA judges, ordered SWAT level raids on people whose crime was praying against their favored policy, etc. Even if the statute of limitations has run on those specific acts, they should be fired. FEC violations should also be prosecuted aggressively, moderated only by not framing people for disagreeing with you. We aren’t Democrats after all.
Subotai, above, has it right. The tech moguls in the City Journal piece ignored the barbarians too long. They’re inside the gate, all carrying government paid for cell phones, government issued debit cards, living in schools, on government (citizen) owned land (parks), in government subsidized (paid for) rentals, and moving about with impunity. The legislative branch failed to address the problem when it walked away from the “dreamers” question a generation ago.
Pax Americana is waning. There is no greater indicator than the world’s reaction to Israel’s plight. It is the simplest, clearest test of civilization seen in a century and civilization is failing. Reaction from the WEF’s isolated, elevated “elite” to the hooded, masked fresh faced loonies on campuses and in public spaces, combined with the fly-swat reaction to the Houthis are all you need to know. Nations world wide would be fools to rely on support from the United States and the West today, and they’re not.
A global free for all is coming to a neighborhood and country near you.
I really hope Trump gets it together and mentions the price of a rash of bacon, or a dozen eggs or a loaf of white bread or the price of a gallon of gas on the west coast. Better yet a clip of him walking the isles of a grocery store and pricing things out would seal the deal. Everyone knows he doesn’t need to do this; but it would go a long way towards putting him in the reality of most Americans.
I think the idea of getting back at your tormentors always a good thing. Punching someone in the mouth just doesn’t restore some short-term balance to the universe, but does wonders for one’s morale.
Just as long as we know that it’s only a short-term solution. The Bud Light boycott and TSC retreat, the cancellations of various trolls…. all that in the perspective of the past few decades is a a short-term receding of the tide as the sea levels continue to rise. There is real power behind the Left’s push. You want to stop them long-term, you are going to need to take out the institutions that support it; radically reform education, eliminate public-sector unions, squeeze the universities…
In the short to medium term need to stop fighting their strengths and start to thinking empathetically in order to discern their weaknesses and exploit it. The Left gets most of their short, medium-term strength from its sense of historical inevitability and power. It’s like a bicycle, if it’s moving forward it stays upright; stop it and all falls down. People will join with or submit to a winner, not a loser; it’s about momentum.
The Left has thought a lot about power and how to wield it. Might want to think about it too.
The other parts of the Left? Deep state? Well that’s going to be a recurring project, like the mowing the lawn. May I suggest borrowing a strategy from the Romans and launching punitive raids? Say some criminal indictments? Maybe fund civil lawsuits and bankrupt people like those 51 deep-state signers of that 2020 letter or a media type or 2? Forget GOP, got a lot of good conservative groups and state AGs out there, the process is the punishment.
I have thought where would be be today had that assassin succeeded – I believe far worse. It would have brought an anger from millions that those “astute commentators” on The View couldn’t even imagine.
As it is James Woods, being interviewed by Megyn Kelly – was saying that among the hard Left 30% wish he had succeeded. I can’t say the conservative side is also in the fever swamp – I don’t believe many wish harm to our political opponents.
Had the assassin succeeded that may very well have changed.
That is a bridge that cannot be gapped.
As far as a new world being developed, for me anyway we are too much into the thing to know – only when it is over – as many things, can we say for sure how momentous this was.
It’s beginning to look like the fed.dot gov may be heading into irrelevance; much of local LE nationwide now expresses distrust in the Fibbies and refuses to share info with them, there’s about a 50-50 split on whether the Trump assassination attempt was stacking of coincidences or a Deep State Plan that failed, Texas has for some time assumed responsibility for securing its southern border, in stark contrast to the wording of the federal Constitution, and finally SCOTUS has killed Chevron, restoring Constitutional limits on the executive branch.
How far all that goes is anyone’s guess, but I suspect whatever it is that passes for an election this fall will determine where we go next. If it’s Trump & Co (the “& Co” is important – last time he depended on Swamp Dwellers for staphing (not a typo) his administration, this time he knows better) there will be a glorious fight over downsizing the feds. If it’s Whomever on the Dem side, I’d bet a goodly number of the states may start doing as much internalizing and load-sharing as they can without being accused of secession because Democrats are so internally focused and institutionally incapable of reading the handwriting on the wall, and I would expect their irrational enthusiasm for not just keeping, but expanding, Washington could cause its own problems.
All of which assumes Whatever The Election Turns Out to Be commands any degree of respect from We The People. If enough of us treat it with substantial disdain it I’d expect one or more states to decide on scaling back what they send to D.C. and hang on to more money to deal with some of the national problems that have been foisted on them, and that will initiate a 35 Trillion Dollar crisis that will reverberate around the world PDQ. Whole governments have been toppled on much less. Texas, as a Republic, could lead the way, but things aren’t exactly copesetic in places like Tallahassee, Baton Rouge, Columbia or Cheyenne, and in the other direction Albany, Sacramento and Annapolis could attract new partners.
We shall see but Heinlein’s advice to place your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark may be worth revisiting, or at least keep your gold, silver and car keys handy.
It’s not about retribution. It’s aligning the feedback mechanisms.
Game theory proves it.
https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/courses/soco/projects/1998-99/game-theory/axelrod.html
While I’m happy to see some trends going our way (some people are waking up and paying more attention), I remain extremely sceptical about the election. I doubt it will be clean; we’ll likely see new cheating methods. I believe the Dems have the lawfare advantage, and if they don’t “win” outright, will tie up the results in court for a long time. This will greatly aid them in claims about the legitimacy of a Trump administration.
Despite the populace waking up, the Deep State remains embedded and dangerous. The best way to handle them post-election is to do as Argentina did: simply cut vast swaths of the bureaucracy on Day One. If nothing else, that example might persuade the remaining bureaucracy to shut up and play nice in an epiphany of simple survival.
Plus, I also believe retribution is necessary, despite the usual milquetoast impulses of establishment Republicans to declare “that’s not who we are.” The Democrats set the example for political prosecutions; we should return the favor.
But all of this is dependent on Trump surviving and winning. That’s still not a given, despite the polls.
The Left depends on the low information people who believe the lies and slanders about conservatives. Pay attention to Elon Musk’s transition. He voted D because he thought they cared. Now, he knows better. His mistake is shared by millions of other voters.
The Left is evil. If you want to win the long game, you have to expose the evil. Label the evil. Demonstrate how they are evil. You cannot beat them, if you aren’t even willing to admit the reality of what you face.
The attempted whitewash of “border czar” in instructive. The Dems imported criminals from foreign prisons and allowed them to rape, rob and kill innocent women. Undeniable and impossible to justify. This is an issue that should be hung around her neck like a millstone.
Republicans should avoid getting hung up debating the czar label. Did Biden/Harris import killers? Yes. That’s it. The end. Same with defund the police and crime-ridden shithole blue cities. She wasn’t a crime czar. So what? She’s a D. Therefore, she’s on the hook for all the idiocy her party promotes.
Another example (there are so many) — climate policies kill millions of people around the world every year on purpose. Make the airhead, low info voter who just wants to feel good about herself for saving the planet understand that she supports the killing of millions. That support means she’s not a good person. She’s not a nice person.
Make Democrats OWN the evil they are.
Franklin B…”It’s beginning to look like the fed.dot gov may be heading into irrelevance; much of local LE nationwide now expresses distrust in the Fibbies and refuses to share info with them” One effect of higher mortgage rates is that it makes it harder for people to move–hence, they expect to be in one place for longer, hence, they may become more interested in local politics.
After Robbie Starbuck’s success with Tractor Supply, he’s now going after John Deere. The video clip of the CEO’s speech (“My diverse members on the board want more diverse hires, and I’m find with that”–my paraphrase).
I’m waiting to see what the fallout on that will be. JD is huge (not sure if there’s anybody else near as dominant in agriculture), but they sure as hell aren’t making the customers happy. If I start seeing more Blue (New Holland) or Yellow (Caterpillar) tractors than Big Green, I’ll know the trend. (Flyover County, Deepest Oregon, is heavy into agriculture and perhaps 40% of the big ranchers use Deere.)
John Deere CEO…”“My diverse members on the board want more diverse hires, and I’m find with that”
Diversity could be good if it meant different kinds of educational background, different work experiences, different personality types…but somehow I don’t think he meant those sorts of things.
The wind started blowing a generation ago. It’s not new, but back then boomers could dismiss millennials, the establishment felt secured against the laymen, and the consequences of liberalism weren’t splashed across the country for all to see.
Now the decay and reaction have attained political visibility.
Do you remember the women’s march two weeks after Trump was sworn in as president? Do you remember how many thousands of women showed up on time? Most importantly, do you remember how well organized that very large crowd was handled? Weeks and months before the actual election, little feminist obedients were organizing at their local level. WTH do you think is going on right now? How well organized and how large will the next demonstrations (attacks) be and where? I believe the best thing you men can do for this country right now is to keep your ears to the ground. Your wife’s “lunch with the girls” may be something much more.
The problem no-one is mentioning is that the next election might be a poisoned chalice. The interest on the national debt is approaching the national income. The Democrats have been using something called “Modern Monetary Theory” that holds spending is not limited by budget if the government produces (prints) the money. What will happen when the US is technically bankrupt? Nobody knows. It might arrive in the next 4 years.
Re how to deal with the Deep State. Milei has shown it can be done. Sean Gabb (seangabb.Co.uk) has published some thoughts on how it could be done. Onhis site go to Free Books, and scroll down to Radical Coup (which contains the 2007 book Cultural Revolution, Culture War). Chapter 5, What is to be done, proposes that to avoid piecemeal singular battles over one agency after another, the proper response is to kill them all, all together. In one Executive Order, the simple serpent unions are banned, half a dozen Departments are closed, the top 3 or 4 levels of every department and 3 letter agency are gutted, half the 3 and 4 stars are retired and myriad of regulations and rules are retracted due to Chevron over-reach. Also every program which gives, grants or bestows funding to anyone is shut down. This includes the “research” which gave us the Covid ‘vaccine’.
Stan 26Jul 9:31 a.m. Yep. Must not treat Dems as if one could convince them via civilized, patient debate. Assume that everyone knows that everyone knows, that not admitting knowing means chosen blindness. Don’t mean by that one should not marshal evidence, argue from facts, present reasons. Mean that one’s approach must directly challenge Dem’s reliance on foundations contrary to fact, ie, based on faith (eg, socialism, lgbqwerty, climate). Call their bluff: demand they put up of shut up.
In addition to what Stan listed, add, eg: 1) Don’t even debate whether Biden not fit for office, but openly and horse-laugh mock any who pretend otherwise. Respond to any attempted reply as evasion of evidence, nay, suppression of evidence. 2) Demand Harris reveal when she knew 1). Demand she explain how that does not make her complicit in concealment. Don’t debate this; declare it. Declare that what has happened with her becoming the Dem’s choice a matter of coup, not of vote. Mock NPR (national people’s radio).
Mike K 26Jul 12:37 p.m. Indeed. The left may both consciously as well as subconciously intend to hand their opposition a poisoned chalice. Let their opponents take the blame for the impending economic disaster. The sorts of steps to prevent that demand huge sacrifice for a culture not at all in harmony with responsibility.
Even folks who deny tanstaafl in defiance of the First Law of Thermodynamics know better. They can’t not know that gov’t cannot accomplish what they cannot in private economics accomplish. Printing wealth no only has such glaring historical calamities. It simply cannot stand the test of reason. Only God can create not only something from nothing but even the nothing itself.
I don’t have Trump t-shirt, but I do have a Trump flag. I don’t really have a flag etiquette question, I just wanted to post the flag (click on my name).
The next election may well be a poisoned chalice – there are several factors pushing inflation beyond the ridiculous amount of money printing (retiring boomers and reshoring being two big ones).
I don’t think we are _quite_ at the tipping point. Perhaps enough to win the election beyond the margin of fraud, but not sufficient to make any deep structural changes (e.g. eliminate Dept of Ed). For the first time in a long time, the trendline seems to be heading in the right direction. We may not be past peak crazy, but I believe we’ve passed peak acceptance of crazy.
May we also see folks having fun at pointing out the obvious. An example of what I mean:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/491560316652471
If this election presents a poisoned chalice, then part of the fix is to greatly reduce government expenditures. Since personnel are an organization’s greatest expense, it is entirely rational to sharply reduce the size of the government. Extensive, drastic reductions are called for; “it’s only logical.”
Second, greatly reduce, if not totally eliminate, the flow of money overseas.
Third, reexamine subsidies. All of them. Sugar, ethanol, etc.
OC: “… part of the fix is to greatly reduce government expenditures”
That is totally correct. It also illustrates where the real problem lies — in the worthless corrupt totally useless politicians who constitute the CongressScum. Congress has the power of the purse. Congress has to change the laws that make it difficult to fire bureaucrats. Congress writes the laws which create tax-payer subsidies.
The President is the “Executive”, charged with implementing the policies and laws which Congress writes. The President can do only so much with Executive Orders, and strictly speaking should never use those to get around the wishes of Congress. Sadly, we know from the dismal performance of the Institutional Republicrats when they controlled House & Senate during the first 2 years of President Trump’s term that they can be relied upon to do absolutely nothing worthwhile, effectively governing as Demoncrats. “Democracy” has failed.
Since personnel are an organization’s greatest expense, it is entirely rational to sharply reduce the size of the government. Extensive, drastic reductions are called for; “it’s only logical.”
The federal government of the USA is the largest organization in human history.
Almost 3 million.
The army in WWII was bigger but that was temporary.
Since personnel are an organization’s greatest expense, it is entirely rational to sharply reduce the size of the government. Extensive, drastic reductions are called for; “it’s only logical.” Second, greatly reduce, if not totally eliminate, the flow of money overseas.
Take Mike K.’s number of 3 million federal employees since that’s a nice round number (The St. Louis Fed has numbers going back to 1940 which I should add is down from 3.43 million in 1990. when the population was only 250 million) Figure what for total expenses per employee (salary, benefits, administration)? $100,000 (that’s way too high as is)? That gives you a total expense of $300 billion? Okay whack half of the employees and you just cut your deficit by 10%, not bad but that’s not where the ducks are in a total Fed budget of $6.1 trillion
Foreign aid? $63 billion for FY 2024 plus the $95 billion for Ukraine/Israel/Taiwan. You can cut that to zero and you can knock off a few more percentage points off the debt, but as with number of employees that is not what is driving spending or the deficit. Btw… not a fan of Ukraine spending, but with Taiwan and Israel that foreign aid is essentially renting a foreign military on the cheap to fight our mortal enemies. You don’t want to lose Taiwan.
For all of those who think we’re headed to our eternal fiscal doom…. well that might be the way to bet but that’s not very helpful. After you buy your survival supplies and ammo (I have mine and I’m not sharing) how about we think of a way forward, that is unless you really hate your kids and grandkids and want to stick them with a dystopian future.
First as above employees and foreign aid is not what is driving spending, in fact discretionary spending is about 1/3 of the total budget. What is driving the spending are entitlements and it will only get (much) worse as the population ages. You want to cut the deficit? Reform entitlements.
We’re never going to pay the deficit off and we probably don’t have to, the British never did during their long run of Empire. The point is to keep the rate of growth in the deficit below the rate of economic growth. You outgrow your deficit… we did it back in the 1990s, maybe we can or cannot do it again. Getting rid of employees will help but by focusing on those whose work cripple the economy. Scrapping the spending in the “Build Back Better” and “Inflation Recovery Act” will have some direct impact on spending but it’s bigger impact is removing the restraints on growth.
You want to cut the deficit? It will be painful for everyone. Maybe you are all retired and have paid off your mortgage, but I think it will be fair to do what we did in the 1980s and for your kids boost payroll taxes and/or extend out the start of Social Security payouts. No more freebies. What about the itemized deductions on your 1040? Goodbye mortgage tax deduction? You cannot restore fiscal balance by cutting the federal workforce, stopping foreign aid, and deporting illegals alone.
Just remember these are all political choices and in the end everyone (that means all of us) will claim their justification for keeping their share. I’m open to ideas but you have to hut where the ducks actually are not where you want them to be.
For Debt, what matters is not only the total amount of the debt (and its terms and maturity), but also what it was incurred for. A company may incur debt to build a new factory for an in-demand product…or the make a dubious and overpriced acquisition…or to build a fancy new headquarters as a vanity project.
In the US federal government case, if the portion of debt that was incurred over recent decades to support K-12 and college education had actually resulted in a better-educated population, that would have been a good investment. Unfortunately, most of it was not.
The real restraint on the economy is the political policies of the Democrats. They are now committed to a war on merit, which what the “Equity” thing is about. That is described as a war on white men but Asians are also “honorary white men.” Boeing went all in on several destructive policies. One was turning the company over to the money people, then the H1B visas, and they symbolized it by
moving the headquarters to Chicago, of all places! The final step is to DC, which will complete the destruction.